A wuyi mode version of Han Gong Qiu survives only in Xilutang Qintong.4 In addition, its prelude, Yi Guanshan,5 also occurs only here.

However, the title Han Gong Qiu is also used for an unrelated yu mode melody connected to the same story. Versions of this latter melody, also called Han Gong Qiu Yue (Autumn Moon over the Han Palace), Han Gong Qiu Yuan (Autumn Lament in the Han Palace) and Qiu Shan Yin (Autumn Fan Intonation6), survive in at least 49 handbooks from 1589 to 1946.7

Ban Jieyu came from a family already very well known, though not yet as famous as it was to become. By her skillful action she at one time rescued her brother Ban Zhi10 from a charge of treason. Ban Zhi became the father of Ban Biao,11 an historian who in turn was father of Ban Gu12 and Ban Zhao,13 the brother and sister who were responsible for completing the history of the former Han dynasty; Ban Gu's twin brother Ban Chao14 was perhaps China's most famous frontier general.

Gazeteers include Guanshans in Shaanxi and Shandong provinces, but it is also a common allusion to separation from home. The prelude could thus also be translated Homesick.15

The story related in the afterword to the present Han Gong Qiu is a scaled down version of a fairly well-known story about Ban Jieyu, the imperial concubine who at one time was the favorite of the Han emperor Chengdi (r. 51 – 7 BCE).

Ban Jieyu had already proven her moral values by resisting the emperor's attempts to persuade her to ride with him in his chariot, her artistic talents through her ability to recite poems from the Shi Jing, and her generosity by introducing her attendant Li Ping to the emperor. Eventually, however, she lost out to Zhao Feiyan,16 after which great skill was required to survive the jealousy of Zhao and her sister. To do this Ban Jieyu first had to defend herself against accusations that she had cursed the emperor. She then found safety by arranging to serve the empress dowager in her palace.

Ban Jieyu's best poem is often said to be one called Self-Commiseration.17 In it she speaks of her virtue, and her sadness at having been abandoned.

Newly cut white silk from Qi,
Clear and pure as frost and snow.
Made into a fan for joyous trysts,
Round as the bright moon.
In and out of my lord's cherished sleeve,
Waved back and forth to make a light breeze.
Often I fear the arrival of the autumn season,
Cool winds overcoming the summer heat.
Discarded into a box,
Affection cut off before fulfillment.

Xilutang Qintong has several melodies with lyrics in only one or two sections. This is not one of them, but these lyrics could be paired to the music of Section 5 (harmonics). This requires departing somewhat from the normal method of pairing one character with each right hand stroke.19

Ban Jieyu of the Han dynasty lost favor and was sent to live (in the outer quarters); this was the regret (like that of) a round fan in an autumn wind. This melody also describes the meaning of her lonely desolation.

3.Kuian Qinpu illustration (QQJC XI/54)
The melody of the version of Han Gong Qiu accompanying this illustration is the common yu mode melody; it is thus different from that of this 1525 version. However, but this other version still connects to the story of Ban Jieyu alone in her palace.
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4.
Zha's Guide 21/192/-- has 32 entries, but only the first uses wuyi tuning (see also the footnote below).
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6.
秋扇吟 Qiu Shan Yin (Autumn Fan Intonation)
See next and also the fan poem. No connection to
Qiuhu Xing. (25505.260 qiu shan #2 says "abandoned woman", giving a number of references to Ban Jieyu).
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7.Tracing 漢宮秋 Han Gong Qiu (yu mode)
Zha's Guide has three separate entries for what (except for this, the first) are actually versions of the same melody. In other words, all available entries called Han Gong Qiu Yue (see below) seem related to the yu mode Han Gong Qiu. The first list also includes a 秋扇吟 Qiushan Yin as an alternate title; three are called 漢宮秋怨 Han Gong Qiu Yuan.

29/227/436 漢宮秋月 Han Gong Qiu Yue18 entries from 1589 to 1946, all apparently related to the Han Gong Qiu melodies, except the first. The first six are:

1589 (earliest of four with lyrics [昭陽昭陽昭陽殿，嚴鎖深邃宮....], which are unrelated to the Ban Jieyu poem)
1609 (no lyrics but still related to the 1589 version)
1618 (second version with lyrics, similar to 1589)
1691 (third version with lyrics, also similar to 1589)
17021722 (fourth version with lyrics, closer to 1589, but lyrics added after the melody: see XIV/510)

There is a recording by 丁紀元 Ding Jiyuan of one version of this latter melody; it is based on 顧梅羹 Gu Meigong's interpretation from Wuzhizhai Qinpu. See Art of Qin Music I, Hugo HRP 7136/2.
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8.Ban 班;
The Ban family, which traced its origins to the state of Chu, had become wealthy through an ancestor who moved around the beginning of the Han dynasty to the northern frontier. See John E. Wills, Jr., Portraits in Chinese History, p.90ff.
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9.Ban Jieyu 班婕妤 (48-06 BCE; Bio/1827)

Ban Jieyu and Emperor Cheng of Han

Jieyu was a rank meaning something like "favored beauty"; her actual given name is unknown. Some account of her distinguished family is included above. The story of the emperor abandoning her in favor of
Zhao Feiyan is well known, though her biography in 列女傳
Lienü Zhuan mentions only her propriety, not her love. The Qing dynasty image at right (from an online version of that book) of her greeting the emperor does not seem intended to highlight her beauty: was it intended to emphasize her propriety?

Yuefu Shiji attributes to her the Song of Resentment (怨歌行 Yuan
Ge Xing), also called Lament of the Autumn Fan (秋扇怨 Qiu Shan Yuan), related above in connection to the present melody. There is controversy about this attribution; more certainly attributed to her are two rhapsodies, Rhapsody of Self-Commiseration (自悼賦 Zi Dao Fu) and Rhapsody on Pounding Silk (搗素賦 Dao Su Fu; no apparent connection with
Dao Yi). The latter mentions qin twice, once together with se and once in a passage that refers to Boya playing it while Zhong Ziqi listens:

10.Ban Zhi 班稚 (Former Han; Bio/1827)
Ban Zhi, father of Ban Biao, was once accused of treason. He was rescued by his sister, Ban Jieyu.
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11.Ban Biao 班彪 (3 - 54 CE; Bio/1826)
Ban Biao, with his son Ban Gu (next footnote), was the principal author of
漢書 The History of the (Former) Han, which continued where 司馬遷 Sima Qian's Shi Ji ended, ca. 100 BCE.
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12.Ban Gu 班固 (32 - 92 CE; Bio/1826).
Ban Gu, with his father Ban Biao (previous footnote), was the principal author of 漢書 The History of the (Former) Han. Originally it began where Sima Qian's work ended, but Ban Gu's idea was to make the work into a unified history of the entire former Han. It was thus a model for the later official histories. He was also a poet: his 兩都賦 Two Capitals Rhapsody is translated by Knechtges in Wen Xuan, Vol.1. He also wrote 白虎通 Baihu Tong (or Bohu Tong, Discourses in the White Tiger Hall), "a record...of discussions on the classics and on Confucian themes held at the court of the Han Emperor Zhang (r.75-88 C.E.) in 29 C.E.)." (Sources of Chinese Tradition, I, p.344.)
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14.Ban Chao 班超 (32 - 104; Bio/1826;
Wiki)
Son of Ban Biao, he led a quiet life until his brother helped him get a good official post. He distinguished himself so well at this that he was sent with 竇固 Dou Gu to western China. Dou Gu then the Emperor himself sent Ban Chao on further, into Central Asia, where he spent 31 years, to great distinction.

There seems to be a reference to Ban Chao in the following
line of the song Sheng De Song:

生入玉門關，不願醴泉那封。
(He) came back alive through Yumen Guan, but did not hope for a fief in Li Quan (Sweet Springs).

According to 《後漢書·班超傳》the biography of Ban Chao in the History of the Latter Han, after he served many years in Central Asia,

"臣不敢望到酒泉郡，但願生入玉門關。
He did not dare hope to see again (his basecamp in) Jiu Quan district, but he did hope that while alive he would be able to come back through Yumen Pass."

Yumen Guan was a pass in the Great Wall not far from Dunhuang, now part of Gansu Province. Jiu Quan (40665.125 酒泉) was also in Gansu (see
further), but as a base camp inside the Great Wall, it was closer to "civilization". The "Li Quan" (40946.3 醴泉) of Sheng De Song, is almost certainly a copy error. There is one near Xi'an in Shaanxi province (or it can simply mean "Sweet Springs"), but it has no association with Ban Chao, who in fact died in Luoyang.

Thanks again to Yang Shao-Yun for pointing out the likely connection of the lyrics with Ban Chao, as well as the likeliness that is was a copy error (there is a similar error - 骨+修 instead of 骨 - in
a later line of the same song.)
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17.Zi Dao Fu (自悼賦)See David Knechtges, Wen Xuan, I., pp.33 and 505. It is translated in Burton Watson, Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry, p.75. (N.Y., Columbia U, 1984), and Albert O'Hara, The Position of Women in Early China according to Lieh Nü Chuan (Taipei, Mei Ya, 1945).
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18.Yuan Ge Xing 怨歌行, attributed to 班婕妤 Ban Jieyu (also called 秋扇怨 Lament of the Autumn Fan)
This poem is in the Yue Fu lyrics section of
Wen Xuan (p. 1196) as well as in YFSJ, Folio 13 [p.616]; there are further poems about her on p.626ff. These are not in a qin section but with Xianghe Ge, originally a type of folk song. There are several translations of Yuan Ge Xing, including by Watson, p.77. The original is,

19.Xilutang Qintong melodies with paired lyrics in some sectionsSee, for example, #34 Xing Tan and #155 Feng Qiu Huang. Regarding the normal pairing method, see under Cipai and Qin Melodies. Although the text of the Ban Jieyu poem is not included with the tablature, the words of the poem are close enough to this pairing method that it seems quite possible an earlier tablature included this, or at least that either the original performer or the transcriber had it in mind. So I often sing the lyrics when I play the melody.
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